this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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    Arch with XZ (lemmy.world)
    submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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    [–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

    Pay particular attention to “b”.

    the property of a body that causes it ... to develop forces or moments that restore the original condition

    That reminds me more of a pendulum. Swing it, and it'll always go back to the original, vertical, position because it develops a restoring moment.

    The state of my system is “running”. Something changes. If the system doesn’t continue to be state “running", the system is unstable BY TEXTBOOK DEFINITION.

    1. That "something" needs to be the state of your system, not an update that doesn't disturb its "steady running motion" (when disturbed from a condition of equilibrium or steady motion).
    2. Arch doesn't restore itself back into a "running" condition. You need to fix it when an update causes the "unbootable" or any other different state instead of "running". That's like having to reset the pendulum because you swung it and it stayed floating in the air.
    3. What you're arguing has more to do with "a", you're attributing it a strength to endure; that it won't change the "running" state with time and updates.

    I think the confusion comes from the meaning of stable. In software there are two relevant meanings:

    I'm fascinated that someone that started off with this resists using two words instead of one this much. Let's paste in some more definitions:

    Cambridge Dictionary:

    stability:

    • a situation in which something is not likely to move or change
    • the state of being firmly fixed or not likely to move or change
    • a situation in which something such as an economy, company, or system can continue in a regular and successful way without unexpected changes
    • a situation in which prices or rates do not change much

    Debian is not likely to change, Arch will change constantly. That's why we say Debian is stable, and Arch isn't.

    reliability:

    • the quality of being able to be trusted or believed because of working or behaving well
    • how well a machine, piece of equipment, or system works
    • how accurate or able to be trusted someone or something is considered to be

    You can and have argued that Arch is reliable.

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

    No, I'm not conflating "a" with "b". I'm using stability exactly as it's used in physics.
    https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/College_Physics/College_Physics_1e_(OpenStax)/09%3A_Statics_and_Torque/9.03%3A_Stability

    My point is, it's a completely valid use of the word. And yes, so is reliable, though I think "reliable" fails to capture the essence of the system changing but maintaining it's state, hence why we don't study "reliable systems" in physics.

    I recommend picking something else to be pedantic about.